Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Rose bush burst through pot Roots stuck

lynscolynsco Posts: 15
in Problem solving
Hello! We have had a rosebush in a terracotta pot for a few years and have realised that over the past couple of years the roots have grown into the ground - which explains the massive growth spurt it had into a tree!

So basically the pot is starting to crumble and I cant move it. How best to deal with this so that I can repot it? 

Photo attached thankyou!
«1

Posts

  • Cambridgerose12Cambridgerose12 Posts: 1,134
    I fear your only option short of killing the rose is to break the pot with a hammer. It’s not a good time to do this now, wait until next winter so you have a chance of saving the rose. If you want to grow any rose in a container, unless it’s a tiny polyantha type, you need a half barrel size. The one it’s in is far too small, so I’m not surprised it’s turned into an escape artist...
  • TheVanguardTheVanguard Posts: 136
    I suppose the other option would be to break the pot and build a wood decking planter around it and leave it growing into the ground 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Yes, I might leave it and build a trellis. Do you know which rose it is?
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I'd leave it in the ground too.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2021
    TheVanguard said:
    I suppose the other option would be to break the pot and build a wood decking planter around it and leave it growing into the ground 
    I like that idea ... and then when you've done that, put up some horizontal wires and gently train those long canes sideways towards the horizontal ... it'll soon cover that fence alongside your decking  :)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    My thought too, re building a planter around it, try and work out the broken bits of the pot underneath. Make the planter wider than the pot and fill in with good soil/loam-based compost, tucking some in gently where the bottom of the pot was to avoid any air gaps. That way the feeder roots can spread out and the main roots are free to grow down. You might need to use a bread knife to lever the roots away from the pot!
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    The rose has made its thoughts about being constrained in a pot pretty clear...
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    We had one embedded in the patio. We put a towel round the pot to avoid flying shards and have it a couple of good hard whacks with a heavy hammer. It just fell away from the roots.
    I sliced root off at patio level pruned the rose down to sticks and repotted as a bare root plant. It's doing well now but we did all of this in the middle of winter. 
    Apart from whacking the pot, you don't need to go to these lengths. As @Loxley says, yours has made it quite clear where it wants to be. Mine wasn't doing well at all.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • seacrowsseacrows Posts: 234
    The rose is definitely preferring the ground to the pot.
    TheVanguard said:
    I suppose the other option would be to break the pot and build a wood decking planter around it and leave it growing into the ground 
    Or build a planter around the pot, leaving the pot intact. Rose fertilizer inside the pot rim, regular fertilizer in the rest of the planter soil. Keeping the rose roots slightly restricted still may stop it from growing into one of those house-sized roses you see in older gardens.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    .... may stop it from growing into one of those house-sized roses you see in older gardens.
    Isn't that mostly ramblers though?

Sign In or Register to comment.